Front fork offset mystery?

[[email protected]]

I might be completely wrong on this, but here goes a question to every
Raleigh or classic bike owner/mechanic. I've just built up a new
VanSchothorst 26 1 3/8 Stainless Westrick with DT Swiss Competition DB
spokes with brass washers, on the original Sturmey front hub. I used
an upturned Raleigh Esquire as a truing stand for the initial lacing.
Ok, all went well, centred the wheel between the forks, all ok.
Transferred the wheel for the stage of bringing it up to tension and
accurate truing. For this i used a pair of 700c forks with a single
rod brake stay clamp with brake shoe for lateral and 6" steel rule
banded horizontally to gauge roundness. Got the wheel good and true,
but then noticed that it was quite a bit to one side. Scratched head,
thought it must have been bent forks on the Raleigh, so re-dished to
get it exactly central. After destressing the wheel prior to fitting,
i installed it in the 1984 Raleigh Superbe and would you believe it,
the wheel wasn't in the middle.

Now i've had my suspicions in the past, as i could insert a finger on
one side between tyre and fork stay from the back of the fork, but not
on the other side. I thought that this can't be right, so i checked my
other 4 3-speeds and you guessed it, all the same.

So here is my question, are your's the same, bigger gap on the right ,
than the left, i.e. the forks are biased to shift the wheel about 5mm
to the lefthand side. I've double checked by flipping up the bikes,
taking off the front wheel and hanging a pointed weight from exactly
half way netween the fork dropouts and predictably, it points about
5mm to one side on the underside of the mudguard.

Is there any reason for this quirk. Is there a practical reason for
it?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks, Nick.

[Marcus Coles]

Some ideas to check.

The 700c forks were Likely 100mm spacing.
The Sturmey Archer hub is probably ~90mm (3 1/2") spacing.

To add to the problems, people often file openings and bend or spread
Raleigh forks to fit other wheels sometimes causing alignment problems.


HTH

Marcus

[[email protected]]

On Apr 10, 10:21?pm, Marcus Coles > wrote:
> Some ideas to check.
>
> The 700c forks were Likely 100mm spacing.
> The Sturmey Archer hub is probably ~90mm (3 1/2") spacing.
>
> To add to the problems, people often file openings and bend or spread
> Raleigh forks to fit other wheels sometimes causing alignment problems.
>
> HTH
>
> Marcus

cheers Marcus, the oln is 100mm on both the Sturmey hub and the forks
of the Superbe, probably because they are later models. I thought that
perhaps it was something to do with either the provision of a tyre
dynamo or perhaps some untold fix for a stability issue. Maybe someone
might still have some knowledge about what an offset wheel does for
handling.

all the best, Nick.

[A Muzi]

wrote:
> I might be completely wrong on this, but here goes a question to every
> Raleigh or classic bike owner/mechanic. I've just built up a new
> VanSchothorst 26 1 3/8 Stainless Westrick with DT Swiss Competition DB
> spokes with brass washers, on the original Sturmey front hub. I used
> an upturned Raleigh Esquire as a truing stand for the initial lacing.
> Ok, all went well, centred the wheel between the forks, all ok.
> Transferred the wheel for the stage of bringing it up to tension and
> accurate truing. For this i used a pair of 700c forks with a single
> rod brake stay clamp with brake shoe for lateral and 6" steel rule
> banded horizontally to gauge roundness. Got the wheel good and true,
> but then noticed that it was quite a bit to one side. Scratched head,
> thought it must have been bent forks on the Raleigh, so re-dished to
> get it exactly central. After destressing the wheel prior to fitting,
> i installed it in the 1984 Raleigh Superbe and would you believe it,
> the wheel wasn't in the middle.
>
> Now i've had my suspicions in the past, as i could insert a finger on
> one side between tyre and fork stay from the back of the fork, but not
> on the other side. I thought that this can't be right, so i checked my
> other 4 3-speeds and you guessed it, all the same.
>
> So here is my question, are your's the same, bigger gap on the right ,
> than the left, i.e. the forks are biased to shift the wheel about 5mm
> to the lefthand side. I've double checked by flipping up the bikes,
> taking off the front wheel and hanging a pointed weight from exactly
> half way netween the fork dropouts and predictably, it points about
> 5mm to one side on the underside of the mudguard.
>
> Is there any reason for this quirk. Is there a practical reason for
> it?
> Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
> Many thanks, Nick.
>
All front wheels should be centered such that the rim is in the middle
of the fork when installed either way around. Either fix the wheel or
align the fork or both as needed until it centers when flipped either way.

Raleigh/ Sturmey Archer classic front hubs have no locknut and as such
_must_ have the round cone on the right (chain side) and the adjustable
cone on the left. This is a safety issue as a 'backward' wheel can seize
when riding. Note also the cones are 'spigotted' to fit the
keyhole-shaped fork ends (the original PRD!!). If you have not quite
engaged the cone in its seat you will also get an off-center effect.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

[[email protected]]

> --
> Andrew Muziwww.yellowjersey.org

Cheers Andrew, the funny thing is, the rim is perfectly symmetrical
between locknuts, so the wheel flips and remains in the same, offset
position. I'm not really happy with compensating by wheel dish. The
configuration is identical on all Raleigh 3-speed front forks, it
isn't a mistake, but it would appear, a design feature. For the life
of me i can't see why it would need to be like this. It would explain
why nohands coasting is a bit tricky, ha.

thanks for the reply,
best wishes, Nick.

[A Muzi]

>> wrote:
-snip-

wrote:
> Cheers Andrew, the funny thing is, the rim is perfectly symmetrical
> between locknuts, so the wheel flips and remains in the same, offset
> position. I'm not really happy with compensating by wheel dish. The
> configuration is identical on all Raleigh 3-speed front forks, it
> isn't a mistake, but it would appear, a design feature. For the life
> of me i can't see why it would need to be like this. It would explain
> why nohands coasting is a bit tricky, ha.

I ride a Raleigh Sports daily and have for a good long while. I have
also sold Raleighs for a lifetime, including a few thousand Superbe,
Sports and LTD three speeds. The fork and wheel should be symmetric.
Really.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971